David Azulai

David Azulai was born in 1954 in Meknes

Azulai was born in Meknes, Morocco, in 1954 to Masoud and Perla. His family immigrated to Israel in 1963 and settled in Rekhasim. He lost his father as a boy and studied at the Zion Blumenthal children's home and later at a yeshiva high school in Haifa.

He served in the IDF as a combat medic from 1974 to 1977. He then studied at the Hazon Yehezkel teachers' seminary and worked in education in Acre as a teacher and school administrator until 1993.

From 1978 to 1993 he sat on the Acre city council. From 1993 to 1996 he was deputy head and then head of the Nahal Iron Regional Council. He was elected to the Knesset for Shas in 1996.

He chaired the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and was Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs from 2001 to 2003, when he headed a team that examined the status of the Falash Mura. He became Minister of Religious Services in May 2015. His remarks on Reform Jews drew criticism, and he opposed the Western Wall plan.

Ill with cancer, he left the Knesset in March 2018 and was replaced by his son Yinon. He died on 30 October 2018 and was buried in Jerusalem. He was married to Pnina and had 4 children.